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Twelve Days of Fast Fiction, Day 02: AROUND AND AROUND AGAIN

Wil Wheaton is a writer, actor, and originator of the most important rule of the Internet: “Don’t be a dick”. I’ve known Wil ever since Warren Ellis introduced us, and have valued the friendship more every day. It’s not that well known that Wil can break a man in half by blinking in his general direction.

There is a bank in New York containing a room, the door to which is ostensibly kept permanently locked. Seventeen people possess keys to the door, and sometimes, meetings are held in this room. There are no minutes, no formal record of proceedings, but all who attend remember what occurs.

Those who are invited to such meetings know that their decisions and actions change lives, influence governments, decide the fate of all the people on the globe. This knowledge is limited to 364 days annually.

For occasionally one more attends. He wears a suit not of his choice, one fully stained with blood, trimmed with the remains of crushed bones, and his voice, even when lowered, is louder than all of the others present.

And it is agreed without discussion that one day a year is his to command: one festival of merriment, a day when joyous celebration is not only allowed, but positively encouraged. Then they leave him, alone in the room.

For 364 days a year, the former hero hides and weeps in his place of solitude. At least they let me have Christmas Day, he tells himself, again and again. At least they let me keep Christmas.

“There are two hundred stories collected in this volume. They are funny, they are thoughtful, they are romantic, they are frightening. To me, though, they are more than entertaining. They are inspiring.” – Wil Wheaton, from his introduction to volume 2 of The Fast Fiction Challenge

Two volumes of The Fast Fiction Challenge, containing 180 stories in Volume 1 and a further 200 stories in Volume 2, are available from lulu.com, and in some countries on Amazon. ebooks available from the author; email for details.